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Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

EV Expert
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.

Got any tips? Feel free to contact him through his LinkedIn profile or Threema: R6F4J872.

Gustavo knew he would make a living with writing. The options were a career in law and journalism. After a quick research, he learned that law professions would help him earn ten times more than a reporter. Knowing how it feels to be broke, he took no effort in going to law school.

Having grown up reading anything about cars his father would put in his hands, he started driving late: Gustavo wanted to buy his first car before learning to drive. But life is funny, and his law internships demanded him to have a driver’s license so that he could go to courts driving company cars. That was the only fun he had in the world of legal affairs.

In the third year of college, dying of boredom, he took part in a journalism training course. Loving cars was what landed him his first job as a motoring writer. But he also fell in love with journalism and how powerful it can be when things are not right in the world.

The profession was as unstable and low-paying as predicted, which eventually became a problem. That made him try to go back to the legal world working as a trainee. Ironically, it was at Ford, where he missed his days as an automotive journalist. That drove him back to newsrooms and made journalism turn into a professional refuge: he could always count on it.

Accepting that the life of a reporter is full of ups and downs – aren’t them all? – Gustavo fully accepted he was a journalist. That helped him earn a few prizes, work in multiple places, visit almost every major auto show in the world, meet a bunch of nice people, and feed his family while working with what he loves. He thanks for that privilege every single day.

At autoevolution, he found the right environment for journalism at its best: it can be fun to have a purpose.
How the Tesla Files Whistleblower Decided to Expose the BEV Maker's Issues
How the Tesla Files Whistleblower Decided to Expose the BEV Maker's Issues

9 Nov 2023, 07:34 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Tesla Files have already revealed several issues with the battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker. Learning how things got to this point is proving to be even more instructive than the effects themselves. Lukasz Krupski went public and told Handel...

 
Those Fiat Strada Trucks Photographed in Portugal May Finally Have an Explanation
Those Fiat Strada Trucks Photographed in Portugal May Finally Have an Explanation

8 Nov 2023, 18:24 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / On October 18, Richard Magno de Paula photographed and filmed seven units of the Fiat Strada in a car hauler on A12, close to the Vasco da Gama bridge in Portugal. The Brazilian magazine Quatro Rodas checked with its sources and learned that the su...

 
Tesla Files Reveal What Led a Company Worker to Become a Whistleblower
Tesla Files Reveal What Led a Company Worker to Become a Whistleblower

7 Nov 2023, 10:07 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Tesla Files have revealed how poorly the battery electric vehicle maker protects its employees' and customers' personal data. It also showed how strategic files, such as those related to the Cybertruck development, were readily availa...

 
Can You Trust Tesla's Numbers When Inventory Looks So Suspicious?
Can You Trust Tesla's Numbers When Inventory Looks So Suspicious?

6 Nov 2023, 20:33 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The slow(ing) sales of battery electric vehicles (BEV) made the blogs that defend them react. Some of them argue that this is not on the product but rather on the companies that fail to deliver what people want at the prices they want to pay. The o...

 
Here's Everything That's Wrong With the Tesla Cybertruck – So Far
Here's Everything That's Wrong With the Tesla Cybertruck – So Far

3 Nov 2023, 11:56 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / If nothing postpones its official deliveries, we should see the first owners of the Tesla Cybertruck present themselves on November 30. Despite that, the electric pickup truck is showing off so often that we already know many of its flaws. For a ve...

 
What Defines a Vehicle As an SUV?
What Defines a Vehicle As an SUV?

2 Nov 2023, 21:15 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Not that long ago, anyone willing to buy a car could go to automakers' websites and have a look at the technical specifications of anything that they considered enticing. Apart from a few honorable exceptions, that is no longer possible. The o...

 
StoreDot Claims Its XFC Did Not Degrade After 1,000 Fast Charging Cycles
StoreDot Claims Its XFC Did Not Degrade After 1,000 Fast Charging Cycles

31 Oct 2023, 10:27 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / After QuantumScape revealed its cells beat its commercial targets, StoreDot wanted to share some good news as well. According to the Israeli battery startup, its extreme fast charging (XFC) cells have endured 1,000 cycles of fast charging without p...

 
Unsustainable $25,000 BEVs: How (and When) Will We Have Affordable Electric Cars?
Unsustainable $25,000 BEVs: How (and When) Will We Have Affordable Electric Cars?

30 Oct 2023, 20:59 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / I started writing about $25,000 (or €25,000) battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and noticed I had more to say than that first attempt would allow. At that point, it was essential to explain why electric cars eventually sold for that amount would...

 
ICE for REx: LiquidPiston Turns the Wankel Engine Inside Out for a Perfect Range Extender
ICE for REx: LiquidPiston Turns the Wankel Engine Inside Out for a Perfect Range Extender

30 Oct 2023, 20:03 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When I wrote about Mazda’s attempt to create the perfect range extender, I mentioned I wanted to examine the ideas that seem to be closer to that goal. Unfortunately, the Japanese company’s attempt with the MX-30 R-EV failed, giving us ...

 
Unsustainable $25,000 BEVs: The Push for Them Totally Misses the Point
Unsustainable $25,000 BEVs: The Push for Them Totally Misses the Point

29 Oct 2023, 14:41 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Nissan said at the Japan Mobility Show that it wanted to develop more affordable electric cars. The Volkswagen Group is working on that with the MEB Lite and all the ID. 2all siblings that it will spawn. Their goal is to cost around €25,000 an...

 
Is the Fiat Strada On Its Way Back to Europe?
Is the Fiat Strada On Its Way Back to Europe?

28 Oct 2023, 17:35 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Fiat Strada is also known as the RAM 700. It is selling in buckets in Brazil and will soon reach Mexico as well. The idea of a tiny cargo carrier that can transport more stuff than a GMC Hummer EV probably rang a bell at Stellantis, which decid...

 
Hertz Q3 Earnings Report Kills Two Tesla Myths With One Stone
Hertz Q3 Earnings Report Kills Two Tesla Myths With One Stone

27 Oct 2023, 19:08 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / People repeat endlessly that Tesla vehicles are cheaper to live with. They also praised the price cuts as proof that the company was a battery electric vehicle (BEV) champion that would offer them to the masses. Hertz killed these two myths with a ...

 
This Is Why Stellantis Joining With Leapmotor Is More Important Than You May Think
This Is Why Stellantis Joining With Leapmotor Is More Important Than You May Think

26 Oct 2023, 19:16 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Leapmotor. Talk about anywhere but China and people will look at you with a massive question mark on their faces. Mention it in China, and most people will tell you about the C11 and how the company is selling reasonably well there. That starts to ...

 
QuantumScape's Solid State Battery Pack Could Power Your EV for 300,000 Miles, Maybe
QuantumScape's Solid State Battery Pack Could Power Your EV for 300,000 Miles, Maybe

26 Oct 2023, 10:57 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Those who follow QuantumScape are certainly familiar with the company's commercial target. The solid-state platform startup wants to ensure its cells can reach 800 cycles while retaining at least 80% capacity. After it shipped its A0 24-layer ...

 
Tesla Profits: Offering Discounts Made No Financial Sense, So What's the Justification?
Tesla Profits: Offering Discounts Made No Financial Sense, So What's the Justification?

25 Oct 2023, 18:16 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Tesla's discounts have been bugging me since they started. I love the idea of having cheaper cars, but I can only respect things that make sense. The battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker's strategy doesn't. When the Q3 2023 numbers g...

 
Tesla Profits: Do the Energy and Services Divisions Cover the Losses Caused by Discounts?
Tesla Profits: Do the Energy and Services Divisions Cover the Losses Caused by Discounts?

24 Oct 2023, 11:39 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / In this Tesla Profits series, I have already shown how much money the battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker lost with its discounts. In an unrealistically beneficial calculation, it was $7.77 billion. The first hypothesis the company's advocate...

 
Tesla Profits: Do Cost Cuts Justify the Discounts the BEV Maker Currently Applies?
Tesla Profits: Do Cost Cuts Justify the Discounts the BEV Maker Currently Applies?

23 Oct 2023, 08:58 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / One of the explanations Tesla advocates find to justify why the company is cutting prices is that the company was allegedly so efficient in slashing costs that it now can share that with customers. The goal would be to "save the world" by...

 
Elon Musk Suggesting the Cybertruck is Bulletproof Is Reckless (and Nothing New)
Elon Musk Suggesting the Cybertruck is Bulletproof Is Reckless (and Nothing New)

23 Oct 2023, 08:29 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Elon Musk is famous for being controversial about all kinds of matters. Honestly, that should matter only to those who take him seriously or give him more relevance than he truly has. That changes substantially when it affects Tesla customers'...

 
Tesla Profits: Q3 2023 Confirms the Numbers Are Unbelievable, in a Bad Way
Tesla Profits: Q3 2023 Confirms the Numbers Are Unbelievable, in a Bad Way

21 Oct 2023, 20:59 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / On July 20, I made an exercise to understand the profits Tesla's earning reports suggested the company had. At that point, they made no sense at all. With the release of the Q3 2023 results, I decided to repeat these calculations in a more ela...

 
Another Battery Pack Error Code Story Shows a Debatable Tesla Practice
Another Battery Pack Error Code Story Shows a Debatable Tesla Practice

19 Oct 2023, 09:27 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The BMS_u029 error code Facebook group recently reached 1,000 members. Luckily, it seems to be growing more due to the interest that the subject raised than due to new cases. Despite that, the stories of those affected never cease to disappoint reg...

 

Stories by Gustavo Henrique Ruffo